Entries tagged with grr

Then I got slammed with more stomach issues while putting the kids to bed.

Tried taking Pepto to fend the problems off; did not work.

This morning I was light headed when I got out of bed to take my shower; currently I have a small dull knot of pain in my lower left back near my spine, and more dull aches in the usual locations behind my front left ribs.

I was expecting Tom to fall apart first, from all the rage and spite he enjoys so much. :/

I am going to compile a list of symptoms and a timeline of when they have occurred these last few months, to show my doctor on the 23rd. This is not a stomach bug.

Repeated attempts to call Ms. Casebolt result in voicemail messages left but not returned.

Called the Airman & Family Readiness Center again, seeking their EFMP contact person, and was told their contact person was "not in the office at this time", would I like to be transferred to her voicemail? Yes I would.

Voicemail recording informs me that this box belongs to the person I already knew was on leave until July 2nd.

Tried one of the other numbers I had for EFMP contact, from Tom and the local EFMP Facebook page. They told me I really need to call Family Advocacy, at a different number.

Family Advocacy says I need to call Ms. Casebolt - I explained this was the person whose voicemail I kept getting - or a Sgt, Brandyberry. (A hobbitish name if ever I heard one.) Also, I would do well to simply take my paperwork to the EFMP office, adjacent to the Women's Health clinic here on base, and talk to them. Family Advocacy says that the EFMP office there is where both Ms. Casebolt and Sgt. Brandyberry are located, and even if they are not there the people who are there are who I need to see.

In between all this, I keep dragging Jack off the coffee table, Mark out of the coat closet, and repairing the mini-blinds on the back door, with which Jack is enraptured.

:;temple rub::

Since ABA for tomorrow also got cancelled, I am going to take the boys over to the clinic tomorrow morning and talk to people face to face.

At the link you will see a photo of two women in US military camouflage uniform. The one on the left is tandem-breastfeeding what appears to be twins. The woman on the right is breastfeeding just one child. Both have made the necessary adjustments to their uniforms to allow their children access.

The woman on the left? Is NOT "baring her breasts to the world", nor is she exposing anymore of her chest than most bathing suits. The actions necessary to get those twins into position? Are NOT equivalent to a man "whipping it out". What DOES equate to "whipping it out" and "baring her breasts"? The kind of thing you see done along Mardi Gras parade routes for strings of cheap plastic beads. Or done by drunken girls at spring break, frequently while leaning out of cars or standing through a limo skylight and hollering "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".

The actions of BOTH women? Are NOT analogous to a man peeing in public. (Nor to a man defecating in public, which I suspect will be the next analogy made.) It's not analogous to a woman peeing or defecating in public either. Those two acts are excreting bodily waste. Breastmilk, and breastfeeding, are not.

As far as allegations of sexual harassment are concerned, in a civilian court, if one is in a state which has passed statutes guaranteeing a woman's right to breastfeed in public or in private, I doubt you'd have much standing. (Virginia is one such state. I do not have knowledge of which other states have passed such laws, but I know there's more than one other.)

I do not have the slightest idea of what the universal code of military justice has to say regarding public breastfeeding as grounds for sexual harassment, as grounds for a religious person who objects to female nudity to file a complaint, or as grounds for disciplinary action regarding being out of uniform or regarding using one's military status publicly without getting permission from one's chain of command. Military regs are an entirely different animal from civilian law.

It remains my conviction that any regulation, military or civilian, that would prohibit a woman from feeding her child, or merely suppress her actions by forcing her to hide her breastfeeding or her pumping by retreating to bathrooms or utility closets to prevent others from seeing and filing complaints, is WRONG.

Now the guy is trying to claim you can sue a woman for sexual harassment because she breastfeeds in front of him if he's a religious person who disapproves of female nudity. We're currently debating the ramifications of "reasonable person" as described here: "This definition emphasizes that harassment need not result in tangible psychological harm to the victim, but rather need only be so severe or pervasive that a reasonable person would perceive, and the victim does perceive, the work environment as hostile or offensive". From http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/airforce/a/afeot.htm

Tom disagrees that the photos from the original article are sexual harassment, but points out that the definition of reasonable is ill-defined and generally amounts to whatever the wing commander in charge thinks will make him look good or bad to the press.

I think I am going to step back from the conversation and take the boys out to play.

Edit: NOW he's admitting he's stretching the issue a bit with the sexual harassment comment, he realizes it's unlikely anyone would in fact see a woman breastfeed and expose her breasts to the world and cry "Harassment!".

I assured him, as a woman who's breastfed,, there's not a whole lot of exposing your breasts to the world going on. Lift your shirt enough to get at the breast, unhook the special bra, give the kiddo enough room to latch on and breathe, and that's about it.

I doubt this will impinge on his mindset, but the effort's got to be made. I'm disengaging now.

One of the ways in which vegan baking replicates the chemical reaction that eggs would bring to the table, is to whisk together a tiny amount of apple cider vinegar with a larger amount of soy milk (or sometimes rice/almond milks), and set it aside to curdle while compiling the dry ingredients and the margarine/sugar/flavor extracts, then combing all three sets of ingredients in a particular way.

After my chocolate cupcakes failed nearly as spectacularly as the vanilla ones, I did a quick check of all the ingredients' exp. dates.

Turns out my apple cider vinegar, which I only have in the house at all for Mark's cupcakes, expired back in December.

::face-palm::

Store bought goods for the party plus already-made Mark-safe treats for my Zodling it is.

Between that epic fail and finding out Fox decided not to renew The Finder, yesterday was NOT a good day. I'm kinda tempted to break out one of the virgin margarita or sangria recipes I have bookmarked, and settle in with the husband-shaped person and some anime tonight.

The vanilla cupcakes, for the first time ever with this recipe, managed to both overflow their cups, oozing together in a crust across the top of the tray, and be concave in the middle.

I don't even know. >_<

If the chocolate cupcakes also fail, I am taking the boys to the grocery store after school and getting treats for Jack's class there. I still have plenty of Mark-safe chocolate chip cookies; I'll bring along a separate supply for him.

So a segment of Colorado's republican legislators are SO dead set against a bill to permit same-sex civil unions, they'll let bills on WATER PROJECTS, in a drought-riddled state, and standards for driving while stoned, die as a result of legally mandated legislative session deadlines rather than even let the damn bill out of committee.

While going through stuff to sell before he left on his own mini adventure, Tom sorted out a number of movies and video games - and for reasons best known to himself, decided the best place to preserve them from zodling depredations was the top of the fridge.

Not, say, the garage, with the REST of the sale items.

Let me tell you, small children have nothing on the force of gravity.

Most of the stuff remained intact. The little plastic doohickey to hold the third DVD of the Ah! My Goddess OAV is half broken, though, and no longer hold it firmly. And the cardboard casing for Highlander season one came apart at the seams; it can probably be fixed with glue.

My phone turned out to have an empty battery, so I couldn't call the bus company and bitch.

Drove the boys to Friday school; just got back.

Off to take a shower and then go to Mark's regular school to discuss the non-appearance of his IEP.

People may end up figuratively bitten, FYI. I am cranky cranky cranky, and while the pepto I drank this morning has fended off my diarrhea, my stomach still hurts, so I can't salve my crankiness with junk food or fast food or even Dr. Pepper.

Mark bit Jack on the calf, for unfathomable reasons, fifteen minutes before the session was supposed to start. I spanked him and sent him to his room til she arrived.

Five minutes after she was due, I went looking for my cell phone, in case she called to say she was running late or something.

I discovered that yesterday, I brilliantly managed to lock my purse, along with my cell, my car keys, and my military spouse ID, in the car. Tom left for work with HIS car keys several hours ago, so there was no way to access them.

I just got an email from Sarah saying she called me at seven am today to explain she needs a base pass, and was now waiting at the visitor center for me.

I thought she already had a base pass, much like Sherry, the therapist who's now on maternity leave, did through her Army husband.